New York City Department of Education: Reinstate Mr. Portelos to the classroom

Mr. Portelos is not just an educator. He is an inspiration to the students, parents and his peers. He is a Polytechnic University Civil Environmental engineer. After leaving a job, that paid $20,000, more to educate the inner city youth, he spent the last 5 years revolutionizing his school community. He created a unique Science Technology Engineering & Math program at Berta Dreyfus IS 49 in Staten Island, NY. Giving up countless lunch periods, after school hours, weekends, holidays and summer days to push the latest in educational technology, fix the schools computers or coach the award winning robotics team this man brought new definition to the words "dedication", "inspiration" and "drive". All give some...he gave all!

Unfortunately, Mr. Portelos' dedication to make the school better lead him to question some potential issues with the poor school's finances. Principal Linda Hill, other administrators and NYC DOE higher ups immediately pushed his 5 years of amazing service to the side and started an unimaginable attack by creating a very hostile environment, writing falsified disciplinary letters and attempting to discredit him among his colleagues. Being a fighter, Mr. Portelos did not even wince. Their fierce attack made him think there was a bigger picture with more potential financial misconduct. Exercising his rights and putting himself in more jeopardy, he called in an investigation on the administration as well as requesting after school per-session time cards using the Freedom of Information Law. The powers that be retaliated yet again by calling in baseless investigations on Mr. Protelos. They attempted to push him to resign and vote him off school teams. They mocked him in the hallways and harassed him in the classrooms. They pulled in his colleagues and told them to not support him. He fought back yet again by posting this saga on his blog protectportelos.com They then went so far as to exile him away from class and place him in an empty office 20 miles away. There he now sits for over a year. That would probably stop most of us, but Francesco Portelos is not built like the rest of us. He feeds off oppression and the fact that there is possibly an army of individuals out to silence him only drives him to his goal of bringing accountability and transparency to better the students of NYC. In the following months Mr. Portelos found proof that indeed money that was meant for children was mishandled and Principal Linda Hill was involved in criminal financial misconduct. She and others remain in the school, while Mr. Portelos sits at a cubicle in Queens.

Ms. Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, Mr. Portelos is a game changer. He thinks out of the box so much that the box doesn't even exist. He is a great asset to education and keeping him in the basement of a copy room in Queens, NY for an unspecified period of time is the biggest disservice to all. Even those who oppose him have to understand that his gears never stop. All they have really given him is time and the obstacles thrown at him are but small distractions. Please reconsider placing Mr. Portelos in a position where he will continue to create the sparks in the minds of students that will eventually blaze into a fire of success.

Even after he was sent to the rubber room, Mr. Portelos continues to educate and place instructional videos on his website, www.mrportelos.com. The parents tell him that their children continue to watch and learn in his absence. He also has an article that was just published in the latest issue of NY Teacher newspaper: Play, Pause Rewind Learning works for all